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The Daily PollLAST WEEK, Taoiseach Micheál Martin named his new Cabinet which featured some familiar faces along with some new (and lengthy) titles.
The reason for this is that the number of ministers is limited to 15, and so senior ministers are given a few departments to manage (like Jack Chambers new role as Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation) or “super junior ministers” are brought in to try and divvy up the workload.
However former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar says this workflow is “suboptimal”.
Writing in yesterday’s Sunday Times, Varadkar said that “politicians are hamstrung by our constitution which limits the number of senior ministers to 15″.
He adds: “Perhaps it’s time to bite the bullet and amend the constitution… so we can have “dedicated senior ministers for defence, disability, culture and children.”
So today we’re asking: Should we increase the number of ministers from 15?
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Are you serious journal.As if there isn’t enough highly paid civil servants junior ministers etc to run our small island.
@James Leahy: imagine FRENCH PRIME MINISTERS yearly wage is 178k per year. Our junior wasters at the dail get 200k with all the bonuses. CRAZY , CRAZY, CRAZY. Parasites.
@Lei tatt: we are more comparable with Bulgaria or even Belarus. As we can see with Lowry, the french or Spanish parliament would deal with these clowns.
Too many wasters as it is.
Theres not enough seats for political dynasties some poor nieces and nephews get left out of the trough…. So sad.
@bruce banner: correct no more room at the trough.
Everything they do, they do because we allow it.
@Chop Chop: How would we stop this?
@Thesaltyurchin: Stop voting for them.
@Thesaltyurchin: we stop it by protesting, how many people were at the march on the weekend for the pro Palestine one, but we can’t be bothered to protest when our government keep screwing us over, we have no backbone, and because we don’t we have emboldened them and they think they can do what they like with no repercussions like we seen in the dail the other day. They treat us like thicks and we sit back moaning and do nothing.
@Thesaltyurchin: they can’t increase the number of ministers without a referendum. Vote against the referendum and don’t vote for any party supporting it.Job done.
@Chop Chop: go back to texas
@Social Guy: Nice, thats the answer I was looking for, now lets expand the referendum perimeters to include non constitutional matters… and we might actually get something done… but it wont be politicians, it’s too risky to even have ideas in Irish politics, failing that, then Chopper is probably right, will there be a last resort? I don’t see the anger and violence of the last few years going away, it will only build, mocking or dismissing it will only make it worse (imo)
@Maire Hicks:
Half of them at the Pro Palestine march probably couldn’t find it on a map, the pictures look great on Instagram though.
@Maire Hicks: you voted in that government,sure anything but the big bad SF ,
@sean weir: With their history of governance here!?… oh wait
@Maire Hicks: There seemed to be a small crowd at the pro Hamas demonstration. There would undoubtedly be far less if our illegal immigration laws were enforced as most in the picture seemed to be from the Loony Left and militint Islamic rabble.
@Thomas Sheridan: you always see pics of the same people that lad that runs rebel telly and similar .. I was clocked from that channel (despite being relatively liberal) Paranoid, hypocritical hippies
It’s absolutely farcical all the Ministerial positions, and then we have Junior Ministers plus Super Duper Ministers on top of that, they are making a mockery of our parliament. It’s basically jobs for the boys, not to mention all the associated costs with these extra ministers which we are paying for. Should be a referendum on this plus the numbers of TDs.
@The Firestarter: we have the most ministerial positions out of all the eu countries already , we have junior ministers , super junior ministers ALL on a tax payers money gravy train. Absolute parasites adding absolutely no use to the country other than draining money on their super inflated wages 200k a year??? You must be CRAZY , WHEN FRENCH PRIME MINISTERS WAGE IS 178K PER YEAR!!!!!!!!
15 senior ministers is more than enough for this small country and they should be supported by no more than 15 junior ministers and that should be put into law also, they need to be limited because they prove they can’t be trusted when it comes to the financial rewards of ‘office’
Workload? Are you having a laugh? This lot would do a weeks work to avoid a days work. Shysters, chancers & robbers.
@Matt D: Do your research and see how many days a minister works. let alone the length of their working day.
@Gary Kearney: phukk off troll. It’s not work.
@Gary Kearney: do YOUR research and see how many times even in the last 10 years FFG almost empty out from the chamber when it concerns something that requires empathy and genuinely affects people. Screw their middle class and older voter base who despise this country. I’m sick to the back teeth of them
Yes. The world is a very different place than it was when our Constitution was written in 1937. This isn’t a document frozen in time. We update it as we need to.
The number of ministers will still be capped, the electorate wouldn’t accept it otherwise.
@Ronan Mc: electorate forgets. E voting machines – Liffey Millenium clock-Goodman saga -Anglo -PMPA-government jet in a hangar too small for it etc etc etc
@Dr Albert S Meinheimer: the printer,bike shed, security hut ,the list goes on and on ,but still they vote them in ,why ?
Because the house they got for 195000 is worth 500000 today ,
Because they are doing all right and have a nice car and a holiday every year,
People don’t give a damn about their fellow citizens, waiting lists or homelessness,if I’m alright jack then it’s feck the rest of you
@Dr Albert S Meinheimer: We’re already paying them as Super Juniors so what’s the difference? Might as well put them on a Constitutional footing and stop this fudge.
We’ve way too many TD’s , Senators, County Councillors and MEP’s as it is , just imagine if there’s a United Ireland?
Where will we put all the extra TD’s and Senators in Leinster House? A house that should be called a house of Ireland that represents the people of Ireland instead of the people inside the M50
@Tommy: How many TDs are inside the M50 and outside the M50. Do the maths!
Then look at the population. Again do the maths!
What difference would it make, we’re run by DAVOS anyway.
@087 bed: evidence?
@Oliver Sutton: who needs evidence these days ? As long as you can whine on about dysfunctionality. What about discussing admi istrati e change that doesn’t require extra ministers?
@Alan: Would that be Adrian? I’m sure you’ve had more than enough to say on your far-right groups.
@Oliver Sutton: “dig baby dig”
Greater Manchester with a population far exceeding ours is run by 7 City Counvillors. Our overloaded Dail is just a rip off of the struggling taxpayer. Our Taoisrach is just one gay on the job and he’s off on a jolly to Poland.
@Bat Collins: No it is not, A very simplified version of the truth. There is a directly elected Lord Mayor, City Councillors and then district councils all feeding into the system.
Same as London!
@Bat Collins: Greater Manchester has a population of less than three million. It does not have its own legal system or government departments. The roles of city councillors are not comparable to that of government ministers. It’s a very strange and pointless comparison to make.
Do they run more trains in a single city than we can organise in a whole country?… methinks they do.
This is an emotive and baseless question. To answer, facts about proportionality are necessary. Pure and utter click bait
Ministerial posts are used as bargaining chips at this stage .
Not for the betterment of the electorate.
Shows the type of people going forward for elections .
@John Mcmahon: Then run yourself if you are not happy with the current TD’s and councillors!
Add a few more coaches to the gravy train.
Nobody can oversee more than o ne area and do the job properly.EG Naval ships going to sea with guns disabled because they were not maintained,children in pain,suicides at all time high because desperate people cannot get timely intervention,no oversight of spending etc .
Only 22 cabinet positions in UK, despite having a population of around twelve times larger than ours.
@Darius Guppy: Yes and they have 35 Ministers of State same as junior ministers.
Absolutely not! There are enough snouts in the trough doing nothing about anything as it is.
Jobs for the boys
Guess who is going to get a vote of no confidence after about two months.
Should increase the size of the dustbin for ministers.
No, as the slurping at the trough might break the sound laws
More waste of our money there professionals at that
I think you’re thinking of the other gay that ran the country
Well done Sadbh, excellent journalism.
We need a Senior Minister dedicated to Disabilities/ Mental Health, only
Yes you should increase it,same level as Zimbabwe or Susan
@sakk sa: Sudan
Yes, if it would lead to more efficiency.
lol sure… Ireland is anti efficiency in all aspects of society.
Correction, one *day* on the job
@Bat Collins: Keep going…
So many people who have no idea how the government works, There are so many different areas that did not exist when the number of minister was chosen.
Rather than have one senior minister focused on one specific area they have a number to deal with.
Junior minister do not have enough power to get things done. Hence the Super Junior Minister.
We need people who are leading their departments not being dragged all over the place.
We need departments focused on one area staffed by experts in the field.
So that the minister and their staff are all focused on the same issues.
As it is now the ministers must multi task at high levels on completely different issues and are expected to have answers on all the various issuers their department covers.
Unless they are all high function people with A|DHD, they have no chance of doing so.
A simple example is consider for communications, they looked after the P& T and RTE.
Now look at Communications!
Ireland limited has gotten much bigger and it needs more staff to run it.
What is so hard to understand.
Certainly not. We already have enough incompetent idiots who are twiddling their thumbs on taxpayer money. The government is already too big as it is already, we don’t need more red tape and bureaucracy. The only purpose of a government should be to provide a court system, a police and fire service and a standing army for national defence. Everything else can be handled at a far better rate of efficiency and cost by the private sector. We have a culture of big government progressivism that has taken hold of our country. There isn’t a single party in the Dáil that wants to abolish any government department or cut back on the level of government spending. Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and Sinn Fein basically all have the same end goal for this country in terms of their tax and spend Keynesianism.
No
Moreover people who voted for FFg and really couldn’t care less that Lowry is getting what he’s getting should hang their heads in righteous shame. Lowry was already dishonest in the mid 90s
Why not merge the 2 deparments of finance and the 2 educations ones? That would at least reduce the number of departments from 18 to 16.
ANd I’m sure a few others could be merged too like justice and defence?
Be less need need for any more ministers but that would make too much sense for the government
have your say